An optical network involves technology to effectively provide a bandwidth needed by a subscriber terminal and can be either point-to-point or point-to-multipoint architecture. In an optical network, an optical line terminal (OLT) has an interface for supporting multiple optical network terminals (ONTs) and exercises control over all ONTs in the optical network. While active optical networks (AONs) generally utilize a point-to-point architecture, passive optical networks (PONs) are configured as a point-to-multipoint network, and PONs and AONs are being standardized by international organizations such as the IEEE and the ITU-T.
As communication network systems become more common at work and home, more attention is being paid to efficient power consumption. For example, OLTs and ONTs in an optical access network (OAN) tend to be on all day. However, given the fact that users actually use ONTs for about 5 hours each day (20% of the day), a significant amount of unnecessary power may be expended. Furthermore, despite its high utilization, OLTs consume a much greater amount of electrical power than ONTs in regards to managing multiple ONTs.
According to a conventional approach of minimizing power consumption of an OAN, an ONT operates with a backup battery during an emergency, i.e., when the main power supply is no longer available. However, this approach has proposed only as a technique to extend the life of ONTs during a power outage by reducing the power consumption of the ONTs as much as possible. Unfortunately, there have been no approaches of minimizing power consumption of an ONT during its normal operation and of an OLT during both its normal and emergency operations.